Everywhere I go I bring pens, pencils, and watercolors
with me. In social gatherings I will often pull out
these implements, putting pen to paper. These actions
are done allowing new acquaintances and old friends
to join in with my spontaneous art making. Although
I now do these collaborative drawings all the time,
they are still a relatively new phenomenon for me. In
fact, a few months ago, I hardly drew at all. I preferred
to paint on a canvas with oils. Most of the time though,
my oil paints just sat in the laundry room gathering
dust. One crisp clear night in January of 2005, I paid
a visit to a locally run artist's collaborative called
Intermission, and art was suddenly revitalized for me.

I climbed the stairs to the group's studio and lay
my bike on top of a nest of the other bikes stacked
in the hallway. As I signed my name on Intermission's
Artist Society email list, I was stuck by the aura of
a place filled with artists, art materials, and work
stations, plus two cats and an older dog. To add to
the bustle of events were two small kids in the back,
sword fighting each other with sticks. The scene was
an art party. People stood and sat with markers in one
hand and tea in the other. I sat down at a table strewn
with art supplies and partially completed artworks.
I was encouraged to add my own additions to the works
in progress. Soon I was happily engaged in conversation,
drawing, and collaborative art making. During my time
sketching I met members of Intermission, Steve Calvert
and Marianne Bos, whom I later conducted this interview
with.

When I had finished at the table, I saw some completed
pieces set aside from previous art collaboratives. I
was astonished; they were harmonious, unexpected and
absolutely captivating! Simple cardstock pages were
transformed into bizarre scenes depicting everything
from cartoons to pastel washes, stick figures to geometry.
It was apparent however that it was not important so
much whether or not the end product was good or bad,
what mattered was the process of simply doing it.

Can an event that resembles a party really be art in
Vancouver? Intermission follows the trail of such precursors
as Fluxus, who in the 1960's combined many art mediums
together into Happenings, and the earlier Dadaists from
the 1920's who wanted to expand human experience through
irrational performances. One of Intermission's contemporaries
is another Canadian collaborative group, The Royal Art
Lodge from Winnipeg. They, like Intermission, hold regular
drawing sessions, and also invite collaborations to
work with many mediums including video, puppets, costumes,
and dolls.